Republican Senators grilled a Japanese American judicial nominee over a book review she wrote in law school, Reuters reports.
In December, President Joe Biden nominated U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenly Kato for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, NBC News reports. She faced questioning from the Senate on Tuesday.
Republican Senators zeroed in on a book review Kato had written in 1995 when she was attending Harvard law school.
In the review, she said neo-conservative Asian-Americans “internalize the dialogue of oppressors, believing in the values of the status quo and condemning the activism of their group.”
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa asked her what she meant by that statement, Reuters reports. Kato told the Senator she “had no recollection of what we were trying to convey.”
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Republican Senator Ted Cruz claimed that Kato’s book review suggested that “to be sufficiently woke, an Asian American must support policies that discriminate against Asian Americans.”
Cruz asked if the lawsuit regarding Harvard’s alleged discrimination against Asian American students concerned her. Kato declined to comment on an ongoing case.
During her nomination hearing, Kato discussed her own background. She described the impact her parents’ incarceration in Japanese American internment camps during World War II had on her.
“Hearing those stories of my family’s first-hand experiences impressed upon me from a very young age the critical importance of securing our constitutional rights for everyone,” Kato said, according to NBC News.
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